


Losses Which Shape Life

by Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ensemble Cast, Gen, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-10-02 05:38:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10210760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: How Anakin met his end, and what became of Obi-Wan after with Luke Naberrie as his padawan.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Too Old for a Padawan](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7758013) by [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly). 



> When I wrote "Too Old for a Padawan" I didn't intend to stack that 'verse with angst, but Anakin's death happened and I was asked about that, as well as Luke with Obi-Wan. This is a sketch of those events.

In one long, mad moment, Obi-Wan thought Anakin would actually turn on him. Ahsoka's injuries were so severe and Barriss was giving everything she had to keep the younger padawan alive, aided by Luminara. It was sheer fortune that the two Mirialans had been near by when Ahsoka stumbled into the gardens for them and gasped out what she had seen.

"I merely asked Ahsoka to observe what she could when she said she thought she heard a solar-sail ship!" Obi-Wan said, his eyes watching Anakin for the slightest tell-tale of danger.

They were screaming in the locked jaw and clenched fists, but his eyes slowly gave way to something approaching sanity.

"Are you going with me?" Anakin demanded.

Obi-Wan wanted to argue, wanted to say they needed more people, wanted to do anything to stop the confrontation ahead of them.

"Yes."

"Artoo is going with us," Anakin said before he placed a very gentle hand on Barriss's shoulder. "Take good care of her, Padawan. I know she's in good hands with you."

Obi-Wan didn't know that his words, that Anakin's very faith in Barriss saved the young woman from a dark path until years later, when the dedicated healer admitted it on the anniversary of that day. She'd never heard anyone other than Luminara and Ahsoka tell her she was good at what she did, and here was Anakin Skywalker, notorious loose cannon, praising her healing and care.

"Why Artoo?" Obi-Wan asked as they got to the open speeder Ahsoka had arrived in, her dark blood staining it heavily.

"To show the Republic who the true traitor is."

* * *

The fight between two pairs of masters and apprentices was anything but an even one. However, it was being broadcast on every single info-board Artoo had been able to hack… and as soon as the media realized what it was, it was on all of them and the main event on the HoloNet. That led to troop support for the pair of Jedi, as the pure evidence of the Chancellor being a traitor by not just meeting with Dooku, but aiding and abetting him added to their battle haze on seeing crimson lightsabers in the man's hands.

Order 66 had no footing in their mind, when their eyes were showing them plenty of evidence for using Order 65.

Troop involvement meant firepower coming down on Dooku's ship, keeping him from escaping this time, and delays that allowed the nearest Jedi Knights to join the beleaguered pair. Anakin gave himself over more and more to his anger and fear, remembering his padawan bleeding under skilled green hands, throwing her all into telling him it was Palpatine, making him see it in his mind's eye where there could be no lies. 

His eyes were slipping into an amber as Obi-Wan felt the bond growing so cold between them.

With the world watching, Anakin Skywalker, their beloved Hero with No Fear, threw himself into the power of the Dark Side, stealing it from the two older men to bring about their downfall.

Later, it was decided Dooku's death had been from the blasters. 

No one had failed to see Anakin deliver the death-blow to Palpatine, even as the red lightsaber pierced the young Knight. The entire world saw as Obi-Wan screamed defiance, leaping to Anakin's side. The debate over the nature of Kenobi-and-Skywalker's relationship would be stoked by the tragedy, as Obi-Wan bowed his head over the younger man's body, close enough to hear the last words.

Later, Ahsoka Tano would resign from the Order, soberly convinced she had caused her Master's death.

Later, Barriss Offee would tell her own Master about the anti-Jedi plotting.

Later, the Republic would vote a statue and many honors to the Jedi Knight that had saved them, never knowing he had Fallen to do it.

Obi-Wan would spend more of that first year Force-blind than he'd ever admit, from trying desperately to heal his padawan, to anchor him in the Light. It wasn't until he held the children that Anakin had never known were a possibility in his own arms that Obi-Wan Kenobi found a reason to smile again, even with all his own Master had done to try and reach him. Someday, Obi-Wan promised himself and the bereaved new mother, he would teach one or both of Anakin's children, and see them continue the legacy of his brilliant, if tortured, beloved friend.

* * *

"They both want to go to the Temple," Padmé told Obi-Wan. It had been over five and a half years since Anakin had died a hero. Obi-Wan still came to visit her on Naboo occasionally, even if he was careful to never betray that the Naberrie twins were Skywalkers as well. Even Qui-Gon had no idea that they were, not for certain, or that Obi-Wan knew the truth.

"And your thoughts?" he asked neutrally, even as he watched the pair play on the beach under the watchful eyes of their beloved second mother, Sabé.

"I'd be flatly against it, if it wasn't for how hard I know you have worked to make the Order a better place. I just want to know if I will still have access to them, as I do mostly live and work on Coruscant."

Obi-Wan glanced at her, then slid his hand to hers on the railing.

"You will not lose contact with your children, Padmé, if you allow them to go to the Temple. I will make certain of that."

"I know I can trust you to watch over them," she said to that, before they both focused on watching the bright, shining Lights that were the twins.

* * *

When Luke entered the Exhibition, he did so knowing what would come from it. His gift of seeing glimpses of the future had never failed him, any more than Leia's ability to read people failed her. He settled into life as the padawan of his father's teacher with that secret unaired, devoting himself to learning everything he could.

Obi-Wan Kenobi found Luke Naberrie to be so unlike Anakin in most things that he rarely had to step back and catch his breath. The boy was open and friendly, not a trace of blatant suspicion in him. Only in piloting did he really see Anakin in Luke… and he was usually too busy holding onto the handle or seat to worry about that comparison as the time went by.

Luke's first adult lightsaber was Anakin's though, as the teen had stumbled out of his room, half-asleep, into Obi-Wan's to where the device was singing to him. Obi-Wan had watched, stroking his silvered beard, and then nodded.

That was the night they actually talked about Anakin Skywalker. That was the night Luke really saw how deeply his teacher had loved his father. It was the night the stories began to flow, stories he would share with his sister when he saw her next.

Obi-Wan didn't mean to tell him about Anakin's Fall, but it slipped in speaking of that final, terrible fight.

"I just… I wanted to save him, to bring him back, to keep him alive and in the Light," Obi-Wan blurted. Luke moved close, tucking in to hug the man that had been in his life for so long. 

"He had to save you," Luke said, and knew that. "He probably thought he was going to lose his padawan. He couldn't lose you. He couldn't leave that man to torment Mother. He let himself use the Dark Side… because he knew it would save you all," Luke reasoned. "I don't doubt he was in the Light, Master, even if his eyes had turned. He gave himself over to be the hero everyone needed."

Obi-Wan held the teen close to him, lips against the hair that would never be as dark as that of either of his parents. "So wise, my padawan. Your father would have been proud of you, both of you… and loved you more than anything except your mother."

Luke smiled, then squeezed his teacher tightly. Obi-Wan didn't need to know Luke already knew that, that Leia did as well. Anakin Skywalker's presence had never not been in their lives, even if no one else knew it.

* * *

Obi-Wan had often thought of Ahsoka since she had left the Order, barely healed. He had not really heard anything out of her, but suspected her hand in aborting the kidnapping attempt when the twins had been three, and suspected her as foiling at least two of the assassination attempts against Padmé. He was positive that she had a hand in the continued disappearances of the retired clone troopers, as Cody had only said they were going to a place found for them… about three weeks before he left for good, their lives having long since settled into an awareness that they were not best suited to being a couple.

He never expected to come face to face with the huntress she had become, or to owe his life to her, along with his padawan's survival. As he struggled to breathe around the broken ribs along his left side, and Luke did what he could for aid, he looked up long copper-orange legs sporting white markings to find a Togruta whose markings were tantalizingly familiar. The short hip wrap, the binding holding back the breasts were traditional Togruta hunting garb… but the pair of lightsabers in her hands were not.

"The air will drop soon, in temperature," the Togruta told Luke, setting a pack down. "Tend him, and I will set the tent for you both."

"'Soka?"

The woman looked at him with a hardening of her features, then set about her task after using the Force to toss the bodies of their assailants far from the site. She did not speak again, not even when Luke pleaded with her to share their shelter, walking off into the growing night.

"Why wouldn't she stay?" he asked, and Obi-Wan struggled to answer.

"I don't think she ever forgave herself for your father's death, even as she knows it was his choice, and he had to, to be true to himself."

"Father wouldn't have wanted that," Luke said, and Obi-Wan agreed.

Only later, when Luke was sound asleep, did Obi-Wan wonder just how Luke had been so confident of that answer.

* * *

Luke didn't have to face his Trials in the Temple.

He would much rather have done so, as he stood beside the pyre and watched his life close on this chapter. His sister stood beside him, under his arm, as they gave Obi-Wan's physical form back to the flames, his spirit having departed during the fight against Darth Maul and the Sith Apprentice that was Luke's own age.

The Apprentice had escaped, but Luke had made certain to use the incinerators on the Zabrak, knowing those stories too well. For defeating a Sith, just like his Master, he had been Knighted. 

He tried not to look at Master Jinn, or he would break completely. This was all so complicated, given how close Maul had come to killing the aged man long before the twins' birth. To have him responsible for Obi-Wan's death was almost too much for the old man.

His sister, just Knighted that very spring, was aware of the need to support them both, but right now, it was her brother most in need, by Master Jinn's own reasoning.

The twins looked up, beyond the flames, as one. There, each saw as the ever-present guardian of their lives clasped the newly transfigured Master close, a reunion at last of Kenobi-and-Skywalker. 

The death still hurt, but there was comfort, and Luke leaned into that as much as he leaned into his sister.


End file.
